8/2/2019 ___Dave Does the Blog Santorum and the _Fairness Doctrine_ for higher education Print

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24/12 ***Dave Does the Blog Santorum and the "Fairness Doctrine" for higher education Print

-kleerup.org/blog/2012/02/24/santorum-and-the-fairness-doctrine-for-higher-education.html/print/

- ***Dae Doe he Blog - hp://hill-kleep.og/blog -

Sanom and he "Faine Docine" fo highe edcaion

Posted By ***Dave On Fri 24-Feb-12 7:25am @ 7:25am In PlusPosts |No Comments

Between breaths talking about the evils of higher education yesterday(where faithful boys and girls go to be indoctrinated into atheism,don'tchaknow?), Santorum also unleashed this little bombshell idea.

"Just l ike we have certifing organiations that accredit a college,we'll have certifing organiations that will accredit conservativeprofessors. If ou are to be eligible for federal funds, ou'll have toprovide an equal number of conservative professors as liberalprofessors."

How many ways is this insane? Let me tick off a few.

1. Conservatives, and the GOP, have fought tooth and nail against the(non-existent) proposal to restore the "fairness doctrine" to TV andradio. Yet here's Rick, suggesting a "fairness doctrine" for highereducation.

2. How does one become a certified "conservative"? What constitutesa "conservative" vs. a "liberal"? Do they have to be theists, orChristians, or the Right Kind of Christian (and do we really want to

impose a religious teston professors)? What about a libertarian whobelieves in legalizing pot but is opposed to abortion? What aboutsomeone who is pro-free trade but opposes the War on Terror? Issupporting gay marriage a conservative value (Dick Cheney) or aliberal one (Barack Obama)? How can you possibly boil down themultiple axes of political, social, religious, philosophical, economicthought in the world into a binary classification like this?

What is the Conservative Creed to which certified conservatives will berequired to attest and adhere?

(Of course, people do all the time, self included, in discussing the"Left" vs the "Right" but that's rhetorical, and usually sloppy. We'retalking here about something that has to be codified enough to meetfederal grant and student loan requirements.)

4. How long before some conservatives think that the conservativesreceiving certification are, in fact, too liberal, and the standards needto be further tightened up? "Jones? Well, she's good on the LafferCurve, and she recognizes the existential threat that Islam representsto the Christian West, but I also heard she's on the Pill. Besides,should we really be encouraging a woman to be out in the workplace?"

8/2/2019 ___Dave Does the Blog Santorum and the _Fairness Doctrine_ for higher education Print

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24/12 ***Dave Does the Blog Santorum and the "Fairness Doctrine" for higher education Print

-kleerup.org/blog/2012/02/24/santorum-and-the-fairness-doctrine-for-higher-education.html/print/

5. And, along the same lines, what happens as "conservative" evolvesover the years? It's frequently commented that there are GOP icons ofthe past 50 years (Reagan included) who couldn't get nominated todaybecause of their "liberal" ideas. Does "conservative" certificationrequire annual renewal?

6. Does this mean that we will have "certified liberals" as well, andthat they'll have guaranteed spots at Liberty U. and George Mason and

Oral Roberts?

7. How insane is it that Santorum is actually recommending thatpeople should get jobs based on their political beliefs?

Santorum seems to think that the only way to protect conservativeideals (by which he means his own) is by forcing the world to treatthem equally, by ensuring some "equal number" ofslots for it, somesort of "Political Affirmative Action." The "Free Market" of ideas isapparently not enough here. He assumes his own ideas are the True,Righteous, Correct ones, and so it's perfectly acceptable to impose

them on educational institutions (one wonders about when otherinstitutions would follow).

Say what you will as to whether the majority of academia is hostiletoward "conservatives" (provide strict definitions, please), that's asocialphenomenon which, when talking about ideologicaldiscussions is the only possible way of dealing with the matter.

(Which is why, btw, this is fundamentally different from racial orgender affirmative action both of them a conservative bete noir. It'salso different from protecting against religious discrimination, if only

because you can at least put labels on people's religion and measurehiring / firing / promotion rates.)

I do believe in a robust and diverse intellectual community inacademia. I think that's an ideal easier said that done. And I certainlydon't think the solution is through federally-blessed certificationboards to determine ideological purity. #ddtb

Embedded Link

Daily Kos: Santorum Calls for Conservative Education Commissars

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I'm sure you've already seen the Rick Santorum clip where he saysthat contraception is "not OK" and expounds various other medievalideas about sex.

Here's what probably you don't know: That's not .

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